The bad news keeps on rolling in for law schools. Applications are down 14 percent this year, leading some to speculate that tuition drops may be in the future. The total number of applicants at accredited law schools was down to 59,983 as of March 16, the Law School Admission Council reports. By comparison, the number was 78,500 in 2011, which was still down 10.7 percent from 2010. Law school is a business....
Clients do the most ridiculous things sometimes. But what do you do with one who takes stupidity to another level? In a move that could have only been inspired by watching The Little Mermaid one too many times, a man has confessed to robbing a bank while dressed in swimming goggles and a bright pink scarf. He was also toting a tuna can designed to look like a bomb. After being convicted of assault, Sean Collins of Glasgow, Scotland was ordered to pay $3,200 in restitution, reports STV....
There’s a common refrain among lawyers that law students – and aspiring law students – dread: “When I was in law school…” Some of the tales that follow that refrain are useful. If the professor who is older than death itself is still teaching, the students of yesteryear can offer grading insight. But when it comes to the cost of law school in the golden olden days … Well, things have changed....
This week, the National Football League relinquished its tax exempt status. The NFL and had been exempt from taxes since the 1940s, although each franchise pays taxes on the money it makes. The NFL made $10 billion last year, so how much will this change in tax status affect the bottom line? Let’s take a look: Before The NFL had been incorporated as a 501(c)(6) organization. Under this designation, “business leagues, chambers of commerce, real estate boards, boards of trade and professional football leagues, which are not organized for profit and no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual” are exempt from paying taxes....
I opened my inbox last week to find this tweet, forwarded to me by a friend: Curiosity piqued, I took to the Federal Circuit’s website to determine the extent of this ban on facial gestures. Surely, the court is only regulating the conduct of the attorneys arguing before the court, and doing so solely in the interests of justice, right? The Federal Circuit’s website states: “Inappropriate facial gestures or exaggerated gesticulating is forbidden....
Leaving so soon? Maybe the practice of law has not delivered on your expectations. Or maybe you feel the call of another career opportunity beckoning you. We each have our reasons and we won’t judge you. After all, there are at least 101 things to do with your JD besides practice law. If you’re looking to say farewell to the practice of law, keep in mind a few tips that will help you craft your resume for a non-law-related field....
The Supreme Court declined to address the constitutionality of San Jose’s inclusionary housing law on Monday, denying cert of real estate developers petition from a recent California Supreme Court ruling upholding the affordable housing plan. Under the inclusionary housing law, developers of large residential projects must set aside a small percentage of units as affordable, below market rate housing, which real estate developers had claimed was an unconstitutional taking. The denial leaves the law, and the California Supreme Court’s ruling, intact, but as Justice Thomas noted in a separate opinion, the conflict raises important constitutional issues that are likely to be before the Supreme Court at some time in the future....
In a surprising twist, a defendant’s glasses became the focus of a murder trial when the prosecutor accused him of pulling a Clark Kent move on witnesses. Donnell Harris wore glasses to his trial for second-degree murder and prosecutors took note of his change in appearance. They weren’t impressed with his intellectual look but instead realized that Harris doesn’t normally wear glasses, a fact they mentioned to the judge. But when the judge issued a jury instruction that referenced the glasses, Harris’s attorney felt it had gone too far....
This is not how you want to start your legal career, especially in the days of information eternality via the almighty Google. The short answer? It’s not worth it. Parker allegedly continued writing on not one, but at least two sections and possibly even more, reports the ABA Journal. A fellow applicant expressed his concern that she had continued writing for less than thirty seconds after Questions 1 and 2 on the first day and around 45 to 60 seconds on Questions 7 and 8, as well as Questions 11 and 12....
Oscar season is approaching, and this year’s batch of nominees reaches back to the ghosts of sports crimes past. The Oscars announced last week that Margot Robbie and Allison Janney have been nominated for their respective roles in I, Tonya, a movie that revisits the career of Tonya Harding and the crime that shocked the ice-skating world twenty-four years ago. It’s a tale of rivalry, fame and a bizarrely conceived crime that’s worth a trip down memory lane....
An Oklahoma attorney is recruiting lawyers to march on the state capitol in support of a teacher walkout over educational funding. The walkout, which spread across 55 Oklahoma school districts, has pushed legislators to consider new funding measures. In the meantime, attorney Becki Murphy posted her plan on Facebook to rally 100 lawyers in the cause. It’s not exactly a million-member march, but it’s a start. After all, it’s hard to get lawyers away from their desks....
Defendant’s firearm possession sentence is vacated where 1) the law of the case doctrine precluded the district court from revisiting its determination at resentencing; and 2) the government adequately established that defendant committed the requisite predicate offenses under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) “on occasions different from one another” so as to subject defendant to the ACCA’s mandatory 15-year sentence. Read US v. Thomas, No. 07-3080 Appellate Information Argued April 23, 2009...
A recent federal case brought both victory and defeat to two companies battling over patent disagreement related to vacuum toilets in commercial airplanes. The court addressed a number of pressing issues including the doctrine of assignor estoppel and whether or not a coin could reasonably be considered a “tool.” Assignor Estoppel The case involves patent disputes over the design of vacuum toilets originally invented by a man who transferred his patent rights to his employer, which subsequently transferred again to the plaintiff....
Put a live puppy in the mail and you probably shouldn’t expect to get it back. Stacey Champion, the woman who attempted to mail a poodle from Minneapolis to Atlanta, will not be getting the animal back, according to the ruling of an administrative hearing officer. Champion said that she was attempting to send the puppy to her 11-year-old son. She liked the idea that he would open the box and be surprised with a brand new puppy....
The whereabouts of Florida’s evasive “Mystery Monkey” are a mystery no more, the Tampa Bay Times reports. But the animal’s mysterious origins are still ripe for speculation. After nearly four years on the run, the furry fugitive – a rhesus macaque weighing 45 pounds – has been caught and given a new name: Cornelius, as in the chimpanzee scientist from the “Planet of the Apes,” according to the Times. Better known as the Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay, Cornelius had been spotted swinging from branches and darting in-between traffic over the past few years....
Many would-be attorneys may reveal that one of the perks they were looking forward to in law school was the absence of an accounting requirement, a statistics course, and the calculus they had to contend with in high school and college. That’s fine. Law involves logic, which is arguably a kind of verbal math. But law people, let’s not abandon our basic arithmetic after calculating a GPA according to LSAC standards....
Apparently the NBA and WWE may be headed for a cage match, the AP reports. This because someone forgot to plan for the potential scheduling conflict at the Pepsi Center between Monday Night Raw and the NBA Western Conference finals series. Hey, on the other hand, there might be some good money to be had in watching, say, Kenyon Martin take on a WWE star (although Kenyon might prefer someone else in the other corner)....
It’s not every day you hear that a cockfighting rooster kills a man. But for a California gambler, that’s exactly what happened. In a cockfight, roosters are armed with sharp blades to help them fight, but the blades often result in their death. This time one of those blades resulted in the death of Jose Luis Ochoa, the rooster’s handler and a frequent participant in Bakersfield’s illegal cockfighting rings. The man, killed by a rooster stabbing him in the calf, bled out within hours, reports NPR....
Blue laws exist in many states across America. But now, there’s one less. Kick up your heels – it’s now legal to publicly dance on Sundays in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The City Director repealed the “Footloose” ordinance, coined after the 1984 movie starring Kevin Bacon about a town that banned dancing and rock music. He felt it wasn’t necessary to “impose some outdated, outmoded morality code on all our fine fellow citizens....
Last year, President Obama placed two Democrats and one Republican on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) during a Senate recess. Friday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision finding those appointments unconstitutional. We don’t know if the administration will seek en banc rehearing, or head straight to the Supreme Court, but – with hundreds of NLRB rulings and questions about Consumer Finance Protection Bureau chief Richard Cordray’s appointment hanging in the balance – this case is not going away....
